Ebonics is ‘trendy’ when the right mouth is speaking it. Many Americans forget about or, rather, neglect Ebonics. It’s real. And it’s lit. In case you don’t know what Ebonics is, the word refers to an African American vernacular that was a product of American slavery. Linguistically, Ebonics is not…
Month: February 2017
How to Surive an Attack from an Ex-M15 Agent: Eleven Steps to Getting the Most out of Your Writing Workshop By: Jameson Croteau
Someone told me— right before my transatlantic flight—that Englishmen hate confrontation. Flash forward to my writing internship in London and I have an ex-MI5 agent, veins popping purple through the Skype window on my 16-inch laptop screen, about to burst from my criticism of his second to-be-published novel. His vitriol,…
How to Read a Book When You Can’t Breathe Through Your Nose By: Betty Noe
Falling into bed with a good book always sounds like the perfect solution whenever I’ve acquired the latest illness that is in vogue among my friends. Often, this form of self-care is better than the reality for me. When I have a sinus headache and I’m coughing up a lung,…
Korean Jesus By: Taylor Caron
I would often relay my father’s life story to the first graders that would congregate around my desk at school. Even as a child, I understood that the truth of a tale should never interfere with the drama of storytelling. I remember seeing my teacher coming over to chastise me…
Send Nudes: Contemporary Language, Literature, and the Female Form By: Rebecca Hill
The instructions specified that I got undressed. A notepad in hand, I stood in front of the bedroom mirror in my apartment and looked for the things that I loved about my body. This exercise was something that I would never have tried on my own, something that I had…
Want to Write? Get Talking. By Benjamin Schultz
Like most people, I can never pass up a good story. I’m sure that you are no different. Stories have always been able to captivate the human psyche– whether spoken, written, or edited together. Even that Super Bowl commercial that made you laugh is telling a story (albeit one 30…
When is a Good Time to Stop Writing? Spoiler Alert: Probably Never. By Emily Catenzaro
On the subject of perseverance in writing, a question that may linger in many writers’ minds is: what is the correct timetable for getting published? If your goal is to publish a book of prose or poetry, sell a screenplay, or land a job at a prominent periodical, you may…
How to Read a Book (in Case You Didn’t Know) By Sabrina O’Brien
People often find that I am the most unconventional of English majors. No, I don’t write a lot; no I don’t read novels in a day; no I don’t like Hemingway (which is a comment that has earned me many looks from my fellow students); if you want a story…
What to Read if You Had a Year Left to Live By: Sydney Lauro
Prognosis: you’ve got twelve months left to live. The good news? If you’re literate, you could easily read a book a month. Therefore, it’s time to give up Grey’s Anatomy and escape Meredith’s constant, cliché, and contrived diatribes about life and actually consume a worthwhile use of the English language….
It’s Time to Talk to People About Books By: Autumn Magro
I started a YouTube channel because I had failed. A Harper Perennial Classic edition of The Bell Jar sat half-read on my desk as the recruiter told me over the phone that the aforementioned publisher had gone with someone else. I put the copy underneath a stack of my resumes….